Russian Orthodox leader blesses
new church bells at holy site

By Steve Gutterman The Associated Press

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II speaks in front of a church
bell during a blessing ceremony in Sergiyev Posad, Russia,
about 55 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Moscow, Thursday,
July 18, 2002. The Patriarch on Thursday blessed two giant
church bells made to replace a pair that were torn down from
a tower at the country's holiest site and destroyed 72 years
ago under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. The bells have President
Valdimir Putin's name cast on their side in relief. (AP Photo/Tanya
Makeyeva)

SERGIYEV POSAD, Moscow
Region -- Patriarch Alexy II on Thursday blessed two giant church
bells made to replace a pair that were torn down from a tower at
one of the country's holiest sites and destroyed 72 years ago under
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

The bells -- each with
President Vladimir Putin's name cast on its side in relief -- are
to be hoisted up next month into the bell tower outside the Cathedral
of the Assumption at Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery in Sergiyev Posad,
about 55 kilometers northeast of Moscow.

In addition to Putin,
the bells bear the names of Alexy, the abbot of the Holy Trinity-St.
Sergius Monastery and its financial manager in old Russian-style
lettering along the base, said Hierodeacon Yakov, a monk at the
Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery.

He said Putin was mentioned
because the bells were cast under his rule -- a tradition he said
goes back centuries when the name of the ruling tsar was engraved
on church bells.

Yakov also said it was
done to thank Putin for creating a "favorable atmosphere" for religion
and the church.

Putin is a practicing
Orthodox Christian and embraced a new national anthem that celebrates
Russia as a "holy country" that is "protected by God" -- although
the tune is the same as the Soviet-era anthem that once praised
the atheist Communist Party.

Dressed in a deep green
velvet robe laced with golden thread and a a matching crown-like
miter, Alexy chanted a blessing and sprinkled the bells with holy
water from a big silver cup outside the church as thousands of believers
packed into the sun-drenched square looked on.

"In 1930, these bells
were cast down ... and broken, and it seemed they would never be
restored and placed in the bell tower of Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery
again," Alexy said. "But by the grace of God they have been restored,
and today we bless these two bells."

The bells -- one weighing
27 tons and the other more than 35 tons -- were modeled after two
that were destroyed as Stalin's campaign against religion raged.
Church bells were smashed in cities and towns across the Soviet
Union, and churches that were not torn down were used as breweries,
factories, secret police facilities and for other purposes.

Yakov said the bells
cost more than $2.2 million to make, all of it donated, much of
it from the Nuclear Power Ministry. A list of donors posted outside
the Assumption Church -- underneath photos of the broken bells --
includes six nuclear power plants as well as oil companies and banks.

The bells were poured
at ZiL, the factory that made the limousines Stalin and other Soviet
leaders rode in.

Church and ZiL officials
said they are planning a third, even bigger bell to replace one
that weighed more than 60 tons.

Bells Restored To Russian
Cathedral

By Rebecca Santana

MOSCOW - More than 10 years after the
collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church
is still recovering from damage done to its churches and monasteries.
Last week, the church and its believers celebrated the return
of something that is big both in size and in symbolism: two
enormous church bells.

A group of priests, clothed in black robes,
sang, as hundreds of people gathered in the square at the
Holy Trinity St. Sergius Monastery.

They came to watch a landmark event in the
history of religion in Russia. Two massive bells were lifted
up by a crane and gently hung in their rightful place in the
bell tower. It is the tallest bell tower in all of Russia.

The new bells won't be issuing their loud,
deep peels for another month. The massive iron clappers that
hang inside the bells will not be hung until next month, when
the monastery holds one of its annual festivals.

The two bells, called Firstborn and Evangelist,
are reproductions of bells that were torn down in 1930 by
communist authorities who were trying to wipe out religion.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch
Alexy II, blessed the bells before they were hung.

The Patriarch asked God for his blessing for
raising the two bells.

The two bells are huge. One weighs 27 tons
and the other 35.5 tons.

They were poured at the "Zil" automobile factory,
the same company that made the prestigious limousines used
by top Soviet officials.

Church bells have always had a special significance
in Russia.

When Peter the Great ruled, he stripped many
of the churches of their bells and melted them down to make
cannons or bullets. During Soviet times, almost all remaining
church bells were removed and many of the churches and monasteries
themselves were either destroyed or closed, or used as clubs,
schools, or dance halls.

A photo exhibit at this monastery shows how
its original giant bells were pushed out of the tower into
the snow and then destroyed. But some of the monastery's bells
survived.

The man in charge of the reconstruction, Father
Aristarkh Smirnov, says bells have always been the voice of
the church and of Russia itself.

Father Aristarkh says the bells are a symbol
of belief and independence, a symbol of greatness and of the
state. He says it is hard to imagine the life of a Russian
person in the pre-revolutionary period without bells. They
rang out often to call people to prayer or to alert them to
danger.

The fact that more than 1,000 people gathered
for the bell-hanging ceremony is a sign of how religious life
is slowly returning to normal in Russia.

Local resident Valentina Konstantinovna was
in the crowd.

Ms. Konstantinovna says she came to the monastery
to see the bells hung, because she is an Orthodox believer,
and wanted to celebrate this historic occasion. She says it
is not at all like Soviet times, when almost no one went to
church. She thinks religion is returning to Russia.

According to a recent survey published by
the Russian newspaper, Izvestia, almost 60 percent of Russians
consider themselves Orthodox.

Among them is Russian President Vladimir Putin.
And although Mr. Putin was not at the bell-hanging ceremony,
his presence was felt. His name is written on both of the
bells. Church officials say it was a tradition during czarist
times to write the name of the czar, or leader, on the side
of a new bell. Many church leaders also credit him with creating
the political environment in which this ceremony could be
held.

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